


(don't ask why) I can paint a picture of you in my mind

by crosshatches



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, basically trini is an oblivious gay mess but only when it comes to kim, it has a happy ending you guys, the billy/jason is lightly implied and totally up to you really, this really got away from me didn't it, tw for panic attack-like scenes that are descriptive but not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 23:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19936696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crosshatches/pseuds/crosshatches
Summary: She used to be able to just feel the urge to draw and pluck something from her imagination to work on. Now, every time she goes to put pen to paper it’s nothing but Kim. And it’s fucking embarrassing. So, she shoves it deep, deep down into the depths of her chest, as far as it allows, and settles herself in the fact that she’s cursed to just let her feelings pour out into sketches in a notebook and remain there, forever, unspoken.or; trini has a bunch of sketches of kim in her biology notebook and she's fine with living with her huge crush until she accidentally gives kim the wrong notebook and oh god she's got to get that thing back before kim sees.





	(don't ask why) I can paint a picture of you in my mind

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this one really ran away from me. I intended to write a little story based on a prompt I saw but then it turned into this monster and I can't even be bothered to be sorry about it. Anyway, I hope the five of you that still ship Trimberly enjoy this one! The title is from Eyes off You by PRETTYMUCH.

_t_ _here's no touch or feeling_   
_pleasure or pain_   
_anything like the way you're running through my veins_

* * *

The only sound that reaches her ears at the moment is the soft _scritch_ _scritch_ _scritch_ of pen on notebook paper as she scribbles mindlessly. Trini won’t go so far as to call herself an _artist_ because the pages of her Biology notebook are littered with what would be more appropriately named _doodles_ , but she has some knack for drawing to where her little creations are decent enough to the eye. Half of the pages in the worn notebook are actual notes from class, her messy scrawl spelling out basic anatomy and cell division. The other half, and in most of the margins of aforementioned notes, are scattered with little doodles and drawings and graffiti-type artwork, some rough and unfinished, and some filled in with colored ink or marker. 

Her headphones hang heavily around her neck, forgotten as she had planned to listen to music and draw but refuses to lift her hand from the paper long enough to take the time to fit her headphones over her ears and select a song. Her brow sets low over her eyes in concentration as her fingers grip the edge of her pen so hard her nailbeds turn white. 

As for the subject of her doodles, Trini pulls inspiration from everywhere. Resting against the side of some notes about mitosis lay an artistic diagram of a cell. On the opposite side, a skull with flowers blooming from its eyes. Along the top of her chapter six notes on the science of genetics sits a lightning bolt— 5 colors divided evenly to fill it in. She actually has a few of those. 

Becoming a ranger changed the way she took in her surroundings. Everything is heightened, colors are brighter. And even though it wasn’t her _favorite_ color to begin with, after finding those power coins, she finds herself drawn to things that are yellow. Her favorite beanie, a soft jacket in a thrift store, a translucent phone case with tiny yellow lightning bolts lined across it. She gravitates towards the color almost automatically and doesn’t even actually realize it’s yellow until a few seconds later. Apparently, the rest of the rangers are stuck in a similar situation with their respective colors. Billy has his favorite blue trainers. Jason _swears_ he washes his favorite red shirt every day when they tease him for it. And now, her doodles are filled with a majority of yellow. 

Yellow. 

And pink. 

Her pen presses further against the paper as she draws, tracing out the edge of a bold letter Y. If she would press any further, she would tear the paper, but it’s unconscious on Trini’s part. It’s a secondary reaction to the absolute _visceral_ one she’s having to the lines appearing on her paper as she creates them. As she brings them into existence despite the overwhelming embarrassment that washes over her every time she takes one second away from focusing on the action of drawing to remember what it _is_ she’s drawing. And it’s unbelievably _frustrating,_ this fucking _fixation_ she has. 

She finishes the last stroke and lifts her pen, leaning back from the hunched over position she had inevitably taken to get closer to the page as she drew. Her gaze traces the hard edges of the bold, block letters and an angry, embarrassed blush blooms across her cheeks, as emblazoned and obvious as the name she just inked into the page. 

_KIMBERLY._

A rough sigh accompanies her blush as she shuts her eyes and drags her palms over her face. She rubs her cheeks slightly, trying to dull the heat in them. It only makes it worse because now she has to focus on the fact that she’s blushing _this hard_ over just looking at a doodle of Kimberly’s name in a soft, light pink ink. She lets out a soft groan of frustration. 

“Fuckin’ hell. Pull yourself together.” 

It’s absolutely infuriating how she can’t even help herself at this point. She used to be able to just feel the urge to draw and pluck something from her imagination to work on. Now, every time she goes to put pen to paper it’s nothing but _Kim._ And it’s fucking _embarrassing_. Drawings of Kim’s profile, her eyes, her hands, her _name_ practically clutter all available space in her notebook like some kind of shrine but she can’t stop herself. It’s like her hands have their own little separate monkey brain that sparks into action whenever Kim spares her a glance across the classroom and gives her that soft smile that she only ever really gives Trini. And suddenly she’s got about fifty little doodles of her criminally displayed all over her notes (which she surrounds protectively with her arms so no one will accidentally see that she _cannot_ stop sketching her best friend). 

She has no idea _how_ it got this bad, but thanks to her notes she can almost pinpoint _when_ her little obsession with drawing Kim-related things began. It was a while ago now, but it takes her back to the day Kim texted her for the first time outside of the new group chat Zack had set up for the five of them. 

* * *

_**3:45 pm,** _**_kimberly_** _: **hey, you feeling a donut before training? girl rangers only type thing?** _

_Trini felt a weird rush of something she can’t quite describe when she realized Kim_ _was_ _texting only her and not the rest of the rangers. She wasn’t used to seeing Kim’s name pop up instead of the little lightning bolt and fist bump_ _emojis_ _that titled the group chat. It made her feel a little exposed and nervous— a feeling she should definitely address later after_ _she’s_ _finished having a mini mental stroke._

_Her thumbs hovered over the keypad for a beat. Being a ranger was still relatively new to all of them at this point_ _,_ _and they were still struggling to get to know each other. Their efforts proved fruitless every time they stepped onto the morphing grid together and got their ears blasted by a sentient face living in the ship’s wall (whom they’ve been mildly bonding over by mocking and affectionately calling wall-dad behind his—uh—back?). They were all just so_ different _. Jason, the burnt-out football star, Billy, the absolute angel of the group and likely the purest human alive, Zack, the wild card who was a fucking pain in Trini’s ass. Hell,_ _she’d_ _been purposefully pairing up to spar with Zack just to have an excuse to deck him in the face (or just to deck_ someone _in the face at this point with all the stress building up)._

_But over the past week, she had grown the closest to Kim and it was making her more and more anxious because what she had with the pink ranger was kind of blooming into this soft,_ _close_ _friendship and she didn’t want to ruin it. Because, look, Trini had_ eyes. _Kim was absolutely jaw-dropping gorgeous without any effort at all (as annoying as that was sometimes), and Trini had to struggle as it was to keep her focus on not letting Zack’s right hook land across her cheekbone_ without _Kimberly stretching against a rock face in a slouchy t-shirt that was falling off one of her shoulders and one of those strappy deep pink sports bras she liked to wear. She’s only human and,_ okay _, her gaze did stray occasionally, but she managed to somehow keep her composure most of the time._

_But this. Normally when she was around Kim, it was with all of the boys so she had some kind of buffer between them. Having the boys there meant Trini didn’t turn every conversation she and Kim managed to have into a stuttering mess because she could categorize their interactions in her mind as just part of hanging out with the group. And that managed to make her more comfortable. But now Kim’s name was flashing across her phone screen and she was asking to be_ alone _with Trini and the yellow ranger’s thumbs were shaking._

_But Kim was_ Kim _and Trini knew she was kind of getting herself wrapped around the other ranger’s finger already so she hurried up and typed out a response before she could talk herself out of it or slowly drive herself mad with her current trail of thought._

_**3:52 pm,** _**_trini_** _: **sounds good I’ll meet you in 10?** _

_Trini held her breath for a full 30 seconds while the little dots popped up on Kim’s side before her message came through with a soft popping sound._

_**3:53 pm** , _**_kimberly_** _: **on my way** _

_And when the bell rang on the door to Krispy Kreme when she walked in_ _,_ _she found Kim already sitting at a table with an empty chair across from her, sipping gently on a coffee and bobbing her head_ _subtly_ _to whatever song was playing. Trini took a second to steel herself before making her way over to the empty chair and sitting down._

_“Hey.”_

_Kim looked up with that same gentle smile, the one that makes her eyes crinkle at the edges, “Hey,_ _Trin._ _”_

_Her stomach swelled with_ something _she didn’t want to deal with right now so she tugged at the edge of her beanie to deflect what she was feeling, offering Kim a small smile in exchange and clearing her throat._

_“So, uh, what kind of donut are you thinking?”_

_Kim piped up immediately, setting her cup down, “I don’t know if you’ve ever had their chocolate iced glazed ones, but they’re my favorite. Seriously, I have a problem.”_

_Trini let out a soft chuckle._

_“That actually sounds great. I haven’t been here too often since we moved, so I haven’t really gotten to try much,” she shrugged. Her palms were starting to prickle with sweat because, yeah, she was handling this okay so far but Kim’s lips were just slightly blushed with more color than usual due to the heat of her coffee and she was having trouble keeping eye contact._

_“Okay, um, I’m_ _gonna_ _go order one for us to share. Just in case you don’t end up liking it_ _‘cause_ _I’ll just eat it if you don’t.”_

_Kim grinned at her before pushing up from her seat to go the counter and it gave Trini the chance to pass her palms down her jeans and wipe them dry._

_By the time they_ _got_ _down to the last bite of donut, Trini_ _had_ _chilled out considerably and their conversation flowed more easily. It eased her mind to know that even without the boys there_ _,_ _she and Kim still had the same chemistry to be able to go from one topic to the next_ _without missing a beat. It was comfortable enough that Trini_ _could_ _almost keep up with Kim’s usual witty quips and it was really doing wonders for her confidence._

_Kim wasn’t kidding when she said she had a problem because she’s been eating her little bites of donut and humming around them in contentment every so often. And she wasn’t_ wrong _because the donut was delicious. So, when Trini took a stab at the last bit of it and her eyes flitted up to Kim, eyebrow raised in a challenge, Kim’s jaw set almost possessively. Her lips pursed, eyes squinting in a kind of disbelief that Trini would_ _dare_ _try to snag the last piece._ _Their brief stare down ended when Kim went to snatch the piece with her own fork, but Trini saw it coming from a mile away and moved the donut swiftly to the side while Kim’s fork landed with a dull_ thump _on the table. Kim’s playful tilt of her lips told Trini she was in trouble. The pink ranger made another attempt, but Trini’s reflexes allowed her to move the piece just out of reach again and the hand that wasn’t gripping the fork went to close around Kim’s wrist to ensure she wouldn’t reach for it again._

_A little scuffle over the donut occurred and ended up with them grappling over an airborne fork with a piece of donut attached to it. But before it landed, Trini felt something encasing her arm so she went to lift it and—holy_ shit _. She whipped her head up to Kim who was wearing the same incredulous expression, mouth open while her gaze was trained on her_ _own_ _lap. Trini closed her fingers into a fist to feel it—to see if it was real—because there, up to her elbow and almost synonymous with her skin was a scale-like, yellow armor_ —her _armor_. _It was unmistakable. Kim finally looked up to her and she caught the glint of light hitting the scaly metal curling delicately around Kim’s own forearm, rich hot pink in color._

_They both broke into a fit of giggles when they simultaneously_ _looked up and_ _realized what just happened, and it had an edge of relief to it. The fact that they managed to connect enough to partially morph even without the aid of the morphing grid, it wasn’t something Trini could explain, but she knew she felt about ten times lighter than she did walking in. The armor disappeared a few moments later, sinking back into their skin seamlessly, but they were both still left stifling giggles while the last piece of donut lay on the table, forgotten._

* * *

Trini’s fingers trace lightly over a few raised lines that make up a coffee cup, having flipped back through her notebook to find it. Delicate fingers wrap around the cup and there’s Kim, sipping quietly, just as she was when Trini walked into Krispy Kreme. It was the first time she drew Kim, but she had each detail memorized and she didn’t even _know_ that she knew Kim’s face that well. From her softened eyebrows to the little mole that lay at the corner of her mouth, it’s all there and Trini’s chest almost caves in on itself when she realizes how often she must stare at her best friend. 

She sighs, closing her notebook and pushing it to the edge of her bed. She had drawn that first sketch the following day in class when she, for some godforsaken reason, couldn’t get the image out of her head. It was the way Kim’s lips wrapped around the brim of the cup and the gentle expression on her face, and Trini was merely a vessel for the muses when she finally succumbed to sketching it out in an attempt to stop it from plaguing her mind. And, fine, she _may_ now have a small thing for Kim’s mouth but she would _vehemently_ deny that, even to herself. It’s evident to her now that everything that Kim does tends to affect her in some type of way. 

Her back finds her mattress with a soft _huff_ escaping her chest. It’s ridiculous because ever since they all _did_ finally morph together, it came as natural as breathing to the group. So natural, in fact, that it happens _accidentally_ sometimes to the rest of the rangers. Not full-body morphing as they did the first time, but more akin to how the armor appeared along her and Kim’s forearms in the middle of Krispy Kreme those weeks ago. Most of the time it would be something like Zack and Jason shoving at each other playfully while playing video games and ending up morphing from their feet up to their knees. Or Billy passionately explaining something tech-related to a softly smiling Jason and the red ranger’s armor slowing creeping outward from the middle of his chest. It’s an unspoken rule between them not to mention their little morphing happenings because they’re obviously just a result of a connection being made and it was _natural_ , but lately it’s been happening to Trini more often around Kim than the other rangers and she’s not sure how much more creative she can get at hiding it. 

Like, just the other day, at one of their usual Friday movie nights, they were all sitting in their respective seats in the theater and, of _course,_ Kim insisted on sitting next to her. They were sharing a drink, so it made sense, but it was still typical of Kimberly to make any excuse to be next to Trini. Which was _fine_ because they were best friends, but it led to things like their fingers accidentally brushing across each other’s while they reached for their drink at the same time. If it was anyone else, Trini would have been chill about it, but because it was _Kim_ her body decided to completely fuck her over by having her armor appear suddenly to trace its way up her fingers of her opposite hand. She managed to concentrate enough to stop its progress and shove her hand into her jeans pocket while Kim mumbled an apology and withdrew her hand casually without looking in Trini’s direction. 

It’s the simplest things that her body has the most unnatural reactions to and it’s all because of her absolutely maddening crush on Kimberly Hart. And when her body isn’t betraying her, it’s her head, filling with images of Kim sipping coffee or stretching in the pit or giving her that fucking smile in the middle of Biology and all the combined evidence of this developing obsession with the pink ranger was sitting at the edge of Trini’s bed. It was all getting too much, and the others were starting to notice a pattern to Trini’s behavior around Kim. Especially—and she really _hates_ that it’s him—Zack. 

Zack’s the next closest to Trini after Kim and she has _no_ idea how that happened. He was the first one to comment on Trini’s increasingly odd behavior and it was during a sparring session in the pit while they were learning holds. She had gotten momentarily distracted because while she had managed to get Zack into a tight headlock, she happened to glance over to Kim who had Jason trapped in an incredibly complex triangle hold which ended up with Jason’s neck snug in the crook of one knee while her opposite leg locked over her ankle to keep it in position; it essentially left him in a submissive state between Kim’s thighs with no realistic means of escape. Jason was nearly turning purple, but Kim, as competitive as she was, didn’t let up, only squeezed her thighs tighter around his neck until he was sputtering and was forced to tap violently on her leg until she withdrew. The scene was enough for Trini to have a split second of hesitation in her hold and a fleeting thought of _god I wish that were me_ before Zack had slipped out of her grip and landed a fierce strike to the side of her face. 

They all kind of rushed to Trini’s side because she lay flat on her back in the gravel of the pit, looking every bit like she had all the air knocked out of her lungs; a bright red bruise was blooming across her cheek. Trini knows it probably looked bad, but really, she just felt a bit defeated and sheepish, especially since she just essentially just got her ass handed to her as a result of getting distracted by Kim’s _legs_. 

Jason got to her first, dropping to his knees to check her over. 

“Oh shit, T, you alright?” Zack rushed over to kneel beside her as well. And while she was obviously fine because she had been knocked to the ground more times than she could count after becoming a ranger, it was more the fact that she didn’t get up immediately and get back in Zack’s face like she would have normally—and had many times before—that had the rest of them concerned. 

“Hey, take it easy,” Jason cautioned her, still looking like a protective father with his eyebrows knit together in worry. 

“I’m good, I’m fine,” Trini coughed out, dazed. She sat up slowly, her palms pressing into the dirt, and blinked a couple of times. Her head pounded a bit, but it wasn’t so much her body that was hurt but her pride; she could feel her face and ears flush with embarrassment as Kim and Billy came to stand over her a moment later. 

“Seems like you got a bit distracted there, T,” Zack lit up with a smirk when he realized she wasn’t too badly hurt. Trini didn’t know if he was smirking because he finally won a sparring round or because he knew the _reason_ behind why he did. Either way, she shot him a dangerous glare as she got back to her feet and dusted her knees off. 

“Yeah, Trini, Zack hasn’t beaten you in a sparring session in…” Billy began, counting on his fingers before giving up and looking back up at her, “well, ever!” 

“I just let up for a split second, it’s not a big deal, guys,” Trini waved her hand dismissively at them. Jason finally seemed convinced that she was just a little winded and bruised and backed off with his hands held up in surrender. 

Kim was the only one who stayed relatively silent, but Trini didn’t pay it much mind as they all kind of calmed down. Kim walked over to her and lightly placed her fingers on the bruise before she moved them to under Trini’s chin, turning her head a little bit with gentle pressure. Trini winced slightly, and the fingers were gone. Kim didn’t say anything, just gave her a lift of her chin and an eyebrow raise that Trini took to mean “ _you okay?"_ and she nodded back to her. Kim seemed satisfied as she turned back towards her corner to stretch her arm over her chest. They often communicated through those kinds of looks, and it almost made Trini feel more cared about and understood than any of the boys rushing to her side. Kim knew Trini’s strength; she knew it would take more than Zack managing to land a hook to incapacitate her, and she appreciated it. 

She gave Jason a thumbs up to let him know she was good to continue as they all returned to their previous sparing positions. Trini took her stance across from Zack once again, her feet set apart defensively as they began to circle each other. Zack’s smirk was still firmly on his face and it made her just mad enough to forget about Kim’s legs in her work out pants in favor of knocking him on his ass a couple of times. 

After training, they always were reluctant to go home so they often spent the rest of the afternoon on the cliff high above the ship, goofing around. The fire pit was still there from their first little bonding session, but the late winter was turning into warmer nights with the promise of spring around the corner, so more often than not lately it remained unlit. They were all gathered around it regardless, and Trini reclined in her lawn chair, legs stretched out comfortably. It was a setting she loved—surrounded by the people she valued most in her life. Especially with Kim settled directly next to her in her own chair, nursing a bottle of water. 

It was in these little moments, in the dimming light of dusk and while the rest of the rangers distracted, that Trini allowed herself to linger a little longer in her glances at Kim. She watched as Kim pressed the mouth of the bottle to her lips and took several gulps. Her eyes followed Kim’s jawline down to her neck, watched as the muscles there tightened whenever she swallowed. She felt her jaw tense, and she had to swallow past the growing dryness in her mouth. She was stuck in her reverie for several minutes before—

“ _OW_ , what the _fuck_?!” Trini whipped her head around to find the source of what in the _hell_ just smacked into the side of her head hard enough for her neck to jerk sideways. 

What she found was Zack cackling with laughter, slapping at his knees in quick succession. The soft blush that was making its way up her neck from looking at Kim grew into a furious red one that reached up to her hairline as she gaped at him for a moment. A quick glance to the ground and she spotted a full, plastic water bottle at her feet. Her head pulsed as the dots connected. 

“Oh, man, T, I’m _so_ sorry,” Zack sputtered out past the tears forming in his eyes, “You just—I mean—you looked a little _thirsty_.” 

In the split second it took for her to register his words, she was out of her chair. 

“Oh shit,” Zack scrambled back with his feet, forcing his chair to tumble backward as he did a near reverse summersault in an effort to create some space between him and the advancing yellow ranger. 

Before Trini could get her hands on him, though, Jason was on his feet and over to her, hooking his arms around her own and pulling them behind her back. 

“YOU’RE _DEAD,_ ” Trini twisted in Jason’s arms as she shouted, but the red ranger held tight, only chuckling softly to himself while Zack recovered and continued to move back with caution. 

Billy’s soft, “Come on guys, don’t fight,” was drowned out by the slew of spanish profanities being hurled in Zack’s direction, which was nearing the edge of the cliff now. 

Trini heard Kim’s bright laughter over her shoulder followed by a, “Let her go, Jase! I wanna see what happens!” 

“Listen to Kimberly for once, Jase,” Trini growled, eyes trained on the cowering black ranger. 

“If I let her go, we’re gonna be down a ranger, so that’s a hard no,” Jason shot back at Kim with a soft laugh while his grip tightened around a wriggling Trini. This wasn’t the first time he’s had to hold Trini back. It wasn’t the second time either. 

It took several more minutes of Billy coming to stand between her and Zack, Jason tightening his grip on her, and Kim begging him to let her loose— “ _LET HER KICK HIS ASS, JASON,”—_ before Trini had calmed down enough for Jason to let her go. She had to promise Billy not to murder Zack (out loud or it didn’t count) so she begrudgingly mumbled a flimsy promise that she wouldn’t. 

“At least not today,” she said under her breath as she rubbed at the crook of her elbows where Jason had had to maintain a death grip to hold her back. She was strong when she was angry. 

Zack took a full five minutes to return to his seat after that, Trini fixing him with an intense glare as she poured the whole bottle of water into the dirt. Zack frowned. 

“Well, that’s just wasteful.” 

Ever since then, she knows Zack is starting to figure out that _something_ is going on with Trini lately and that something definitely has to do with Kim. She rolls over on her belly to reach over and turn out her bedside lamp before returning to her back. It isn’t like she doesn’t want anyone to know about her crush on Kim—because of course, it would be nice to be able to _talk_ about her slow-growing insanity—, she just didn’t want _Zack_ having that kind of information because god knows what he would be capable of doing with it. She wouldn’t be surprised if he up and blurted it out to Kim accidentally one day; he isn’t really the most reliable with sensitive information like that. But she doesn’t want to think about that right now or she’ll give herself a stress headache. 

As soon as she closes her eyes, her brain filters through about a hundred different images of Kim, memories of them over the past couple of months that they have grown closer together. Flashbacks to walking through the aftermath of their battle with Rita and having to console a teary-eyed Kim. To Trini texting her in the middle of the night because she had _another_ nightmare about the former green ranger that ended up with Kim in her room at four in the morning to rub her back and help guide her through it. To more Krispy Kreme runs like the first without the rippling anxiety Trini felt in the beginning, just more comfort than she ever could imagine sharing with someone. Their friendship is now something settled so deep and close to Trini’s heart that she can’t bear the thought of the inevitable look of betrayal in Kim’s eyes if she knew how Trini really feels about her. So, she shoves it deep, deep down into the depths of her chest, as far as it allows, and settles herself in the fact that she’s cursed to just let her feelings pour out into sketches in a notebook and remain there, forever, unspoken. 

* * *

The next day reminds Angel Grove that winter isn’t quite through yet as it was obvious a cold front had crept its way in sometime during the night. Trini had shrugged on her plush yellow jacket over her long sleeves before leaving her house to block out some of the sting of the wind. It’s halfway through the day now and as Trini shuffles through the hall, making her way to Biology, she has that stupid giddy feeling welling up in her chest that always inevitably comes when she knows she’s going to see Kim. 

Sometimes she and Kim would ride to school together, so it isn’t always like this. But today Kim was running late and had texted her earlier in the morning to just go ahead and leave without her, so Trini’s anticipation has been building all day. It makes her feel _dumb_ and pathetic to be missing Kim like this, but she can’t help it; she’s since resigned herself to the fact that Kim just makes her feel this way (“this way” being practically _too much_ of every emotion possible) and there was nothing she could do about it. 

She ducks through the hall, dodging shoulders that are practically over her head. Suddenly, she feels a soft hand curl around hers and a shiver races down her spine almost automatically and Trini doesn’t even need to look to know who the hand belongs to. She can feel her armor itching at her fingertips for a moment before it goes away. 

“Sorry ‘bout this morning,” Kim’s voice fills her ears and every cell that composes her simultaneously lights up in stimulation. She turns to face her best friend, a stupid smile surely giving her away, and the hand that Kim isn’t currently squeezing in apology tightens around the strap of her backpack. 

“Nice of you to show your face, Hart,” She quips, hoping to god Kim doesn’t notice the little goosebumps softly popping up across her forearms as the taller girl keeps their fingers linked. 

It isn’t an odd thing for her to do—Kim is naturally a very physically inclined person. She loves giving hugs (except to Billy who has requested affectionate pats on the shoulder instead), loves bumping shoulders and high fiving the other rangers. Trini, though, she loves holding Trini’s hand for some reason and though it’s only really ever for about five minutes at a time, it’s something that keeps Trini up at night (amongst the hundreds of other things about Kim). It’s been especially noticeable in the latest months where Trini’s affection for the pink ranger has increased tenfold; every time Kim reaches for her hand her reaction is always spontaneous and full-body. 

“M’sorry,” another squeeze as Kim speaks, “my alarm decided to take a vacation so I woke up with, like, five minutes to brush my teeth and get my shit together.” 

And it’s obvious she’s not as put together today, but it only serves to make her look so _soft_ with her slightly tousled bed hair and askew soft gray t-shirt that reads “namast’ay in bed.” Trini’s pretty sure that’s _her_ t-shirt, but she’s not about to tell Kim that. It looks better on her anyway, fits her more snugly. 

“Someday I’ll forgive you,” Trini smirks up at her. “Besides, it was nice, the quiet this morning without your obnoxious top 40 playlist assaulting my ears.” 

Kim turns sideways slightly to gape at her, “You say that like you don’t sing along every single day.” 

“I do _not,”_ Trini insists, “I distinctly remember only _your_ loud ass voice singing the Johnson Brothers at six in the morning.” 

“It’s the _Jonas Brothers_ , Trin,” Kim laughs, clear and ringing in Trini’s ears pleasantly. Kim pauses for a few seconds, lowers her tone slightly. 

“And you love my voice.” 

And Trini knows she can’t really _argue_ with that so she keeps her mouth shut and Kim’s chin lifts a little like she knows she’s won. 

A shiver runs down Kim’s arm and reverberates up Trini’s and it’s the first time Trini notices that she’s been shaking slightly this entire time— and that she’s only wearing a t-shirt and jeans in the middle of a cold front. She stops walking and Kim is jerked back slightly before she turns to face the yellow ranger, eyebrows raised. 

“Kim,” Trini’s tone is akin to when she catches her brothers doing something they shouldn’t be. She drops Kim’s hand. 

Kim’s biting her lip, “Hmm?” 

“You didn’t bring a jacket, did you?” 

The look Kim gives her is so sheepish and _precious_ that any sharp edges she has to her voice dissolve completely. 

“Look, I know you’re about to give me a lecture, probably in Spanglish,” Trini blushes because, yeah, she _does_ tend to slip into Spanish when she’s upset (the level of anger she gets to sometimes just _cannot_ be expressed adequately in English, okay?), but Kim’s never called her out on it until now. “But I feel like I should get a pass because I was running late and had _no_ idea how fucking cold it would be out today.” 

And she’s got a point, but Trini was going to fold either way. She sighs, shrugging off her plush yellow jacket and holding it out to Kim. 

“Just take it, you idiot,” Trini makes an attempt at least to keep her face straight, but she can feel the affectionate smile worming its way across her lips. She sucks them in to quell the intensity. 

Kim slowly takes the soft material in her grip with both hands, holding it almost reverently before grinning down at Trini, “See, maybe I just subconsciously knew you’d have an extra layer on today.” 

Trini’s eyes roll so hard they sting while Kim slips into her jacket. It fits a little snug, and it doesn’t quite reach her wrists or hips like it does on Trini, but it does the trick as Kim noticeably warms up. She curls her arm around Trini’s and leans her head on her shoulder briefly. 

“Thank you.” 

“Just don’t get it dirty, Hart, it’s my favorite.” 

Kim’s grip loosens predictably as they reach their classroom and she lets go completely as they cross the threshold. Kim mumbles something about seeing her after class and Trini makes her way to her desk in the back of the classroom while Kim takes hers a few rows up. 

God help her, Trini tries her absolute fucking best not to start her shit today, she really does. And she’s doing great for about half of the class. She picks up her pen, writes her notes, and places it back on her desk. Her fingers prickle but she’s trying _so_ hard not to sketch today because she’s got too many incriminating doodles already. But Kim keeps doing the thing she always does where she takes the small moments of quiet to glance back at Trini—almost as if to make sure she’s still there—and give her that soft half-smile thing that makes Trini want to fucking claw her stomach out to get the twisting to stop. And every single time Trini has no choice but to acknowledge her with full-blown eye contact and smile back. 

Trini doesn’t really know _why_ Kim feels the need to look back so often. It’s almost suffocating the way she flips her head around when their professor goes to fact check in the textbook. Trini can always just _tell_ when Kim’s looking at her because her stare is all-encompassing and _burning_ and it makes the hairs of the back of her neck stand up. It reminds Trini of the saying _if looks could kill_ , but instead of Kim’s pinpoint gaze being malicious it’s just so _demanding_. It’s fitting to Kim’s character, though, that she can command attention just with a look. Not that Trini really even _needed_ commanding to meet the pink ranger’s eye. 

So, when Kim does it for the fourth straight time that period (and Trini really thinks she’s going for a record), she decides the only way to deter Kim is to act like she’s busy. At this point she’s just looking for an excuse, so she picks up her pen again, wraps her arms around her notebook, and begins sketching. 

At first, she _swears_ she’s just going to sketch a face, but then the figure’s eyes are a little too familiar and her hair sweeps to her shoulders just a little too much like Kim’s and Trini knows she’s failed. Because apparently now it’s an inevitability that when her pen touches the paper _Kim_ spills out. 

She can feel the other girl’s eyes on her again but she focuses on her lines, the way they curve around the formation of lips, the gentle slope of a neck meeting a shoulder. The feeling of someone watching her fades and she sighs in relief, the grip on her pen lightening slightly. 

She’s so wrapped up in trying to not let her eyes stray from her notebook that when the bell rings abruptly it makes her jump in her seat and she ends up knocking over her bag at her feet, her pens and various other notebooks scattering across the floor. 

“Damn it,” she swears softly, sliding out of her desk and bending down to grab some of her notebooks and stack them atop the one already laying closed on the desktop. Someone bumps into the side of her desk and suddenly all of her notebooks go flying to the floor again, some landing in awkward positions and bending the paper inside. She huffs in annoyance and starts to gather them up again along with her pencils and markers. 

Kim’s at her side after a minute, grabbing various colored pens and a notebook and standing again. 

“Why do we go to school with such inconsiderate asshats?” Kim scoffs as Trini struggles to shove the rest of her notebooks in her school bag. Kim hands her the pens she had scooped up and she shoves them into the small front compartment of her bag and zips it shut. She shrugs a strap over one shoulder. 

“I don’t know, but I swear to god that’s like the third time that’s happened this week. I’m gonna have to invest in a pencil box.” Trini huffs out a breath of air and pushes the hair that had fallen out of place off her cheeks. She’s just kind of used to being ignored at this point. Before, it would get to her, but now she knows four other people that have her back and it’s not so bad anymore, so she can deal with it. 

Kim holds out the last notebook to her, but when Trini reaches for it, she jerks back. 

“Hey, wait, can I borrow this? I need the English notes from last Friday when I missed because of my stupid hamstring,” Kim questions and she’s looking at Trini expectantly. Trini flashes back to last week when Kim had pulled her hamstring while trying to perform a flying scissor takedown. The move requires literally leaping on top of your opponent, locking your legs around their neck, and twisting your body in such a way that it takes both of you to the ground. It’s an incredibly difficult takedown, especially considering their opponents in the pit consist of giant monsters made of stone, but Kim almost had it down and she was insistent on doing it again and again to the point where the four other rangers were sitting in the gravel watching her finish so they could finally go _home_. Trini was suffering immensely, trying not to focus on how Kimberly’s thighs were apparently strong enough to take an eight-foot rock giant to the ground. It was a particularly hard afternoon. 

“Trin?” Kim’s voice pulls her out of her reminiscence. 

“Uh— “Trini struggles to remember what her question was before she passes a quick glance to the notebook in her hand. Kim’s eyebrow quirks. “Yeah go ahead, I won’t need it tonight.” 

“Thanks, T, I’ll have it back to you tomorrow morning, I swear,” she’s giving her that smile again, and Trini’s absolutelyuseless to reply. She just nods and smiles back for what feels like the hundredth time within an hour and Kim’s got the notebook tucked in the crook of her arm. She jerks her head briefly towards the door. 

“Walk you to next period?” 

Trini briefly wonders if she’s ever told Kimberly _no._

* * *

The sound of metal clanging fills the hallway and Trini only adds to it when her locker slams open. She’s exchanging some of her textbooks, taking the ones she’ll need for homework tonight. While she’s there, she figures she might as well leave some of her notebooks too just to lighten the load on her shoulders a bit, so she grabs the three she has shoved in her bag and looks them over. 

Blue for Calculus. White for History. Red for Biology. 

She pushes the blue and white ones to the back of her locker and goes to pack her Biology notebook when her entire heart stops and she nearly chokes. A paper sticks out of the corner of the notebook and she recognizes it as lines of prose from one of the Shakespearean plays they were currently working on in _English_. She lifts the cover slowly, and sure enough, there, on the back in the upper right corner, is her tiny scribble that reads _English IV Trini Gomez._

She almost drops the notebook altogether when her arms go slack for a second. All at once she realizes that she has _two_ red notebooks. The first is the one filled with English notes she’s currently gripping so tight it’s cracking slightly from the force of her ranger-induced strength. 

The other—oh, god—the other is currently sitting in Kim’s backpack. 

Her back hits the lockers as she turns and sinks slowly to the ground in the middle of the rest of the students walking the halls, on their way home. Some of them shoot her strange looks, but she can’t breathe, feels like there are metaphorical fingers of panic closing around her throat. Dread swims in her chest, and she feels lightheaded suddenly. 

Kim has her notebook. _The_ notebook. 

She tries to reason with herself for a second. Maybe Kim won’t see it, maybe she’ll decide she doesn’t need the notes after all, maybe she’ll see the fifty-plus drawings of her likeness and her fucking _name_ plastered all across the pages and— 

There’s no amount of rationalizing or explaining she could do to cover up the fact that Trini’s borderline obsession with Kim was transparently documented alongside her messy Biology notes. Trini almost feels the heat from the very core of the _earth_ again reaching up her neck and tears sting at her eyes. She presses the heels of her hands to her closed eyes to push them back. Her mind floods with scenes of Kim’s disappointed stare, holding back disgust as she has the notebook open in her hands for the world to see. 

Turns out, she doesn’t even need Zack to blurt out her deepest secrets; she was perfectly capable of fucking everything up on her own. 

“Trin? Why are you on the floor?” 

Trini’s head whips up to see Kim’s extremely confused expression looming over her, soft worry lines present on her forehead. Words escape her. Her mouth opens and closes a few times and Kim does that little head turn she does when she’s concerned. But Trini can’t get anything to come out of her mouth for a full minute. 

She doesn’t know if Kim knows, if she _saw_ yet, and her heart is beating so fast she’s pretty sure she can _hear_ it knocking against her ribcage. She wonders if Kim can, too. 

“I—I—uh,” she stutters and Kim’s eyebrow is raised at her expectantly and Trini _knows_ she definitely looks like she’s having a meltdown in the middle of the now deserted hallway. Which, yeah, she _is_ , but she doesn’t need _Kim_ to know that. 

Kim, who’s standing tall over her, still in Trini’s jacket. 

“I was just— “she has to pause again because she has _no_ idea how to recover from the crisis she’s having and she’s stuck in this limbo stare-off between herself and Kim that has her head spinning even more than it was two minutes ago. 

“Are you like… good? We have training in, like,” Kim brings her wrist up to check her non-existent watch (which would normally make Trini laugh if she wasn’t currently frozen solid), “fifteen minutes and you _know_ Jase is gonna make that stupid face at us if we’re late again.” 

Trini’s shoulders slacken their tension a bit. She knows Kimberly, and she knows that she is a very confrontational, aggressive person who likes to deal with things head-on. So, the fact that she isn’t saying any of the horrible things that Trini was imagining mere minutes ago gives her some sort of notion that maybe, _possibly,_ Kim truly has _no idea_ why she’s freaking out right now. 

“Yeah I’m— “her voice is a little too high when she speaks so she clears her throat, “I’m good. I was just waiting for you.” 

Kim’s eyebrow is still arched and Trini wishes she would _stop that_ because she’s pretty sure her heartbeat just picked up again and she physically _cannot_ handle the stress. 

“With your locker wide open, shit scattered all over, and sitting on the floor like that?” Kim’s tone is laced with a kind of amused disbelief and Trini should have known better than to think Kim would take anything at face value let alone with that flimsy of an explanation. 

“Yeah, well, I just… I dropped my stuff again and so I just decided to, you know,” Trini pauses as Kim looks like she’s barely holding back a laugh now, her lips pressed in a tight line, “stay here.” 

If Kim still doesn’t believe her, she doesn’t say a word about it. She only bends down to grab Trini’s backpack, shrugging it over the shoulder that hers wasn’t currently hanging off of, and stretches out a hand to her. Trini realizes she’s still clutching her English notebook, and quickly presses it to her chest with one arm. 

“C’mon, I really don’t want to have to get lectures from Jase _and_ wall-dad today,” Kim grins as Trini clasps their hands together and uses Kim’s weight to pull herself to her feet. She discreetly slides the notebook into her open backpack when Kim hands it back to her and zips it tight. She shuts her locker and they turn together to walk towards the double doors that lead outside. 

“Especially when Jase is always so predictable. Like,” Kim’s voice drops considerably to imitate the red ranger, “’ _Kim you know training is an important part of what we do’_ like, thanks boss-man I _really_ didn’t know that but thank _god_ we have you here to get on our asses constantly about it. Sometimes I pair up with him for sparring just so I can hit him, I swear.” 

And through her now-settling panic, Trini lets out a short laugh because she and Kim are so alike sometimes it hurts. Kim’s still talking but it’s mainly to herself (and she kind of does that a lot, but it makes up for Trini’s silence sometimes so she doesn’t mind). 

Kim throws an arm around her shoulder. The sleeve of Trini’s jacket travels halfway up her arm with the action. 

Trini’s eyes flick to Kim’s backpack where no doubt her Biology notebook is sitting unforgivingly with all the potential energy of a fucking nuclear bomb. Simultaneously a dozen plans are hatching in her mind of how to switch the two out without Kim knowing and each one is more desperate than the last. 

“You know, sometimes you think too loud,” Kim pulls her shoulder a little and the only thing she can do is chuckle weakly. She’s being even more quiet than usual and she’s not sure if Kim notices but she can’t open her mouth right now. Kim doesn’t know the half of how loud her thoughts are especially when the majority of them consist of _her._ And she intends to keep it that way. 

* * *

The only reason she’s managing to keep focus right now is because she’s currently stuck in a two versus three exercise that Jason has set up, and she can’t afford to let up or else she’s going to be on her ass _again_. She and Billy are on the defense and the advantage is clearly with the other three rangers, but Jason insists it’s a good simulation to go through should they ever lose the upper hand or have to split up for a mission. 

And while that makes sense in _theory,_ the execution is really fucking _hard._

Jason’s right hook misses her by millimeters and she hears the soft _whoosh_ of air as his fist passes. She does a one-eighty and immediately Zack is there. His foot almost lands against her chest before she catches it, pushing it upward and knocking him on his back into the dirt as his standing leg is stretched to its limit. She whips her head around and she spots Billy and Jason caught up in a little boxing match; it’s clear Jason is pulling his punches. 

She goes to crack a smile at the two of them when a solid force collides with the back of her knee and sends her to the ground immediately. The knee that lands, stings, and she’s sure she’s got a nice brush burn there to match the ones already on the heels of her palms. An arm wraps strongly around her neck while another wraps behind her neck and within a second she’s in a hold. Her hands instantly come up to grip at the pressure around her neck as she sputters. 

Lips brush against her ear and lightning cracks down her spine. 

“You really need to stop getting distracted, Major Tom,” Kim’s voice is teasing but that means her grip isn’t as strong as it should be. Trini takes advantage of Kim just _needing_ to take a moment to mock her to gather all of her core strength, turn them both slightly to the left, throw an elbow into Kim’s ribs, and forcefully flip the taller girl over her shoulder onto the ground. She doesn’t give herself a beat to celebrate, only scrambles to kneel between the pink ranger’s bent legs, fist raised. Kim covers her face quickly. Trini’s fist drops and she can’t help the triumphant smirk that locks into place. 

“How’s that for distracted, princess?” Trini presses her hands against the tops of Kim’s knees. She uses the name infrequently, only when she really wants to see Kim bristle. And Kim’s reaction is _exactly_ what she wants as she watches her eyes turn to slits and darken considerably. 

Honestly, she should just expect it by now, but she ends up eating her words immediately. Kim sits up with a speed that sends Trini blinking and jerking back. She uses Trini’s momentary stunned reaction to lock her left leg around Trini’s thigh, quickly grabbing both of her wrists while her right foot comes to press against her sternum. 

Trini freezes up immediately and suddenly Kim’s leaning onto her back again, the grip her fingers have on Trini’s wrists tightening. Before Trini can even really process what’s happening, she’s lifted into the air easily by the force of Kim’s foot against her chest and she’s propelling forward _fast_ into a roll with her arms stretched above her head. Trini’s back slams against the ground as the move finishes with Kim’s legs planted on either side of her hips and their positions reversed; she really _does_ have the wind knocked out of her this time. She coughs and gasps for air as Kim’s forearm crosses over her collarbone and she leans down to Trini’s level. 

“I’d say it needs some work,” she chuckles softly in her face and she can feel the soft puffs of air as Kim pants slightly and Trini is seriously lightheaded now and her chest is _pounding_ — 

“Is everything okay down here, rangers? I’ve recently detected a heart rate of 122 for a thirty-second span and just came down to check on—” Alpha Five appears at the mouth of the pit and Trini flushes immediately. 

“We’re _fine_!” Trini manages to squeak out and she _cannot_ believe her life right now. 

Kim sits up and breaks her hold on Trini’s collarbone, pushing up off of her and brushing the dirt from her leggings. She offers a hand out to Trini but the yellow ranger swats it away playfully. Kim’s lips part as she feigns offense, but Trini knows it’s not real. 

“I can’t believe you brought out fucking jiu-jitsu on me,” Trini groans and presses her hand against her bruised sternum. She goes to stand on weak legs. 

Kim scoffs playfully, “Only after _you_ flipped me like a sack of potatoes. I had to teach you a lesson.” 

Their dynamic in the pit is very competitive and playful, and Kim just absolutely _loves_ when she gets to have a little power over Trini. When she wins a sparring session, she’s always just a little intolerable for hours after and she gets this attitude that Trini can only imagine came from being brought up in competition cheer since she could walk. Still, Trini kind of likes when Kim is teasing like this, almost to the point where she lets up a little bit during sparring sometimes just to see that insufferable smirk on Kim’s face as she presses her into the ground. But that’s only when she’s feeling particularly gross and self-indulgent. 

“If you’re sure everything is all right...” Trini blinks. She almost forgot Alpha was there for a second. He’s not really addressing any particular one of them directly, but he’s looking at Trini and she’s trying to avoid looking back, trying to slow her heart rate so he’ll just _leave._

Billy and Jason are each out of breath and looking up towards the robot. Zack is still on the ground, rubbing at his hamstring and pouting. 

“Yeah, we’re all good here, Alpha,” Jason calls out to the top of the pit, “Just working on some advantage drills.” 

So _that’s_ what they're calling this. 

Alpha’s shoulders make a metal whirring sound as he shrugs and turns to leave. Trini wishes she could thank him for not pressing further as the tips of her ears burn. 

“Maybe we should take five, Jason, that _does_ seem like an alarmingly high heart rate, even for us,” Billy offers and Jason sighs, nodding in agreement. They’ve been going at this for an hour. 

“Water break.” 

All of their school bags and training gear is piled in a group in the corner and Trini eyes it carefully as they all retreat to grab a sip of water. Kim walks away to go stretch her calves by pushing up against a larger rock face on the other side of the pit, and Trini inches towards the pink ranger’s backpack. The boys are momentarily distracted as Jason looks over Zack’s hamstring and Billy chugs a bottle of water. 

Should she— 

Trini swallows with some effort and slowly grabs Kim’s bag. She turns her back to the pit, checking over her shoulder briefly to make sure her friends are still occupied. She can hear them mumbling about something so she turns back around, nervous sweat running down her back and settling at the dip of her spine. She unzips it as silently as she can and her fingers slip _just_ past the fabric of the opening before she hears Jason’s voice from a few feet behind her. 

“Trini! What do you think, pizza and board games at Billy’s tonight?” He calls and she's so startled the bag falls from her grip. She turns quickly to find Jason with Zack’s foot on his knee and leg fully extended; the black ranger’s face twists in pain. Billy’s grinning at her and bouncing on his toes slightly. She has to take a deep breath to steady herself before responding. 

“Y— Yeah, Jase, sounds fun. I just gotta text my mom to let her know I’ll be home later,” she says. Billy’s grin widens and he immediately turns to yell in Kim’s direction. 

“Kimberly!” the pink ranger halts her stretch to look in his direction, “Pizza at my house tonight!” 

Kim gives him a high thumbs up with the hand she isn’t using to push against the rock face. Billy claps his hands together. 

“Ranger date!” 

“Bills, I told you that’s not really how you’re supposed to use the word date, buddy,” Jason places his hand on Billy’s shoulder. Zack is left slumped against a small boulder. 

“According to Google, a date is defined as a romantic _or_ social appointment or engagement. I believe this fits that description, so,” Billy faces Jason to yell inches from his face, “ _Ranger date!_ ” 

Kim’s voice carries across the pit, “Just let him call it a date, Jase.” 

Zack pipes up, his voice a little strained, “Yeah it’s a cool name, bro.” 

Billy turns back to Jason to give him an _I told you so_ look and Trini’s eyes wander over to Kim’s from yards away. Their gazes lock and Trini can see that same teasing twinkle in them she saw when Kim had her pinned in the dirt. Her stomach turns, and usually, she would be all about over-analyzing whatever _that_ little interaction was, but the only thing on her mind now that she's not being punched at is how in the _hell_ she’s going to get that notebook. 

Her only solace is that they’ll all be together again tonight. She can make another attempt then. 

“Time’s up! Let’s go!” Jason waves them all in the direction of the center of the pit. 

Zack groans loudly enough for it to echo. 

* * *

“You’ve said no to, like, three suggestions, now, T.” Zack whines. “Jason said it’s my turn to pick the movie.” 

“Well maybe if you’d pick something other than some Michael Bay’s school of explosions and exploiting women bullshit, I’d be more accepting of your choices, Zachary,” Trini bites back. Zack drops the fourth _Transformers_ DVD with a defeated huff. 

It’s been a debate for the past fifteen minutes, and even more so for the twenty before that when the five of them decided that playing Monopoly was probably not the best idea when Trini and Zack were involved. They all resolved to have a stay-at-home movie night instead, but ever since Jason relented to Zack being able to pick out the movie for the night, the rest of them have been listening to them squabble anyway. 

“Have you two ever agreed on anything, ever?” Jason’s bored tone cuts through their bickering. 

They both face Jason and give him a simultaneous, monotone, “No,” before going back to arguing. 

“Yeah, okay, Zack. I’m gonna have to go with Trini on this one. I’m not in the mood for action tonight.” Kim agrees, shifting under the blanket she and Trini are currently sharing. 

“Well, at least that makes _one_ of you,” Zack snickers under his breath and Trini’s jaw sets. She sits up quickly but Kim’s hand on her chest keeps her from standing up entirely. 

“The _fuck_ did you just say?” 

Zack’s eyes widen and he’s suddenly _very_ interested in the DVD collection again. 

“Jason, what _did_ he say?” Billy prompts. 

“Guys, let’s just pick a god-forsaken movie before it gets too late. It’s a school night.” Jason runs his hands down his face. 

“ _Raiders of the Lost Ark!”_ Zack waves the movie case in the air confidently. 

“Sounds great!” Jason cuts off Trini’s inevitable rejection and gives her a look. She closes her open mouth sits back in surrender. “Put it in, Zack. I’ll go fix us some popcorn. Trini, you wanna come with?” 

And no, she doesn’t _really_ (because she’s warm and Kim is snuggled into her shoulder), but his offer didn’t sound like it was much of a choice, so she throws her half of the blanket over Kim and pushes herself off the couch to follow him into the kitchen. 

Jason waits until they get out of earshot to start what Trini is sure is going to be a lecture. 

“Okay, what’s the deal, T? Like, I get you and Zack rag on each other a lot and I don’t mind it most of the time, but lately it’s been getting a little out of hand, even for you two.” His concerned father tone really makes her feel like a small child being reprimanded for fighting with her siblings. “You’ve even been spacing out at training. I mean, is there something bugging you? Do you need to talk about anything?” 

She freezes a little at that because, _yeah_ , something _is_ bothering her, but she’s not about to spill her guts to Jason in the middle of Billy’s kitchen while they’re supposed to be making popcorn. Her pulse quickens a little. Jason picks up on her reaction. 

“Trini, whatever it is, you know you can talk to us about it, right?” 

_No._

_“_ Jase, I really appreciate it, but I’m totally fine.” _Lie_. “I’m just dragging a little, I probably just need a good night’s sleep.” 

The red ranger doesn’t seem entirely convinced, but the rest of them have learned not to push Trini when she doesn’t feel like sharing. That’s something she’s grateful for. 

“Okay well, uh, if you ever _do_ have something you wanna talk about, just know you have us, okay? I know you probably talk to Kim a lot but the rest of us are here for you too if you need us.” Jason reaches out to squeeze her shoulder affectionately. 

If only he knew how laughably _ironic_ what he just said was. 

“Thanks, J.” 

“Now grab me the biggest bowl you can find in here.” 

They’re halfway through _The Temple of Doom_ when Kim falls asleep on the armrest of the couch, and Trini really isn’t surprised because she had been yawning every five minutes during the first film. The boys are spread out on the floor in front of the living room TV, obviously still engrossed in the action happening onscreen. Trini’s been a _bit_ preoccupied. 

She’s said about five different prayers for Kim to just hurry up and _fall_ _asleep_ already so she can slip away and execute attempt number two to steal her notebook back. She glances over to the taller girl to find her breaths lifting her chest slowly and steadily, obviously deeply sleeping. She carefully lifts Kim’s feet that are resting on her lap and lays them gently on the couch, scooting out from under the blanket. The socks on her feet allow them to hit the floor silently enough so the boys don’t notice her making her way to the staircase leading up to Billy’s room where all of their gear is (only so his mom didn’t come home to see workout bags filled with hand wraps and other dangerous looking things). 

When she reaches the door to Billy’s room, she checks back over her shoulder to make sure she still hasn’t disturbed the others and quickly makes her way in. She spots Kim’s backpack slouched against Billy’s desk and kneels by it, lifting it into her lap and letting out a short breath of relief. 

She hears a small _clack_ and her hands immediately jerk away from Kim’s bag before she can do anything. She turns towards the source of the noise to find it’s coming from Billy’s bedroom window. The tiny _clack_ comes again and Trini’s shoulders sag. 

_It’s just a stupid tree branch._

She turns back to the task at hand, unzipping the backpack sitting across her lap for the second time today. Her fingers stretch through the opening and just _barely_ brush what she knows must be the cover of her notebook before the door creaks open. 

_You have got to be fucking kidding me._

_“_ Trin _?”_ Kim’s low, groggy voice jostles her in the darkness of the bedroom, and she quickly stands to recover, passing a quick glance over her shoulder and pushing Kim’s bag further behind her with her foot. “What are you doin’ up here?” 

“Um,” Trini looks over Kim, takes in how her eyes are squinted sleepily and her hair is ruffled. She’s got indentations on her right cheek from the material of the couch and she looks so childlike and _soft_ that Trini almost _forgets_ what she’s doing up here. 

“Bathroom.” 

“Oh,” Kim yawns around the word, stretching her arms out slightly. “Well it’s getting kinda late and I have to go do some homework before bed, so I’m just gonna head home.” 

Trini mentally curses every deity she can think of at the moment. 

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’ll probably head home soon too.” She’s wringing her hands behind her back. 

“Not a fan of Indiana Jones?” Kim chuckles, walking over beside Trini to duck and grab her backpack and gym bag. 

“Neither are you, judging by the snoring that was coming from the other side of the couch.” Trini doesn’t have any idea where this sudden ability to banter in the middle of panicking came from but she’s going with it for now. Even though it’s probably just her talent at deflecting. 

Kim gives her a playful shove, “I do not _snore_ , jerk.” 

Trini’s laughing, but in her head, she’s fucking _screaming_ because she was _so close_. And now she’s watching Kim disappear behind Billy’s bedroom door to leave with a soft “ _huh, I thought for sure I zipped this thing”_ and she knows she only has one more option. And she really was hoping it wouldn’t come to it, but she’s got no other choice, and, at this point, she’s desperate. She’s going to have to sneak into Kim’s house. 

* * *

And that’s how she comes to be standing under Kim’s bedroom window, her pulse racing and a million and one reasons about why she really _shouldn’t_ be doing this running through her mind. But she really only needs the one reason she’s here to keep her planted in place. There’s no way in hell she can let Kim open that notebook. 

After Kim left, she rushed out with a quick bye to the boys (who barely looked up from the TV as they each offered her a mumbled “bye”) and hauled it to her car so she could discretely follow the pink ranger to her house. And while, yeah, she feels like an absolute creep for doing it, she’s just shoved down the ethics of it because her desperation was now at an all-time high. That, and she doesn’t really let herself linger on the thought too long or she’ll end up just retreating back to her house with her tail between her legs, waiting for a text from Kim saying they can’t be friends anymore. 

She’s chanting _please don’t have opened it already_ to herself as she starts _scaling_ the side of Kim’s house, up to the window that she knows Kim keeps open. Mostly it’s open for the pink ranger herself, in case some kind of ranger-related emergency should occur and she needed to sneak out without her parents knowing. But Trini knows it’s also open for her, for the rare times Trini needs to come over in the dark hours in the morning to help Kim work through one of the many nightmares they’ve all been having since their battle with Rita. They’re getting less frequent, though, and Trini hasn’t been through this window in a while. 

Just as she’s able to lift herself slightly above the windowpane, she can see Kim’s soft silhouette moving about in her room through the sheer green curtains. All of her personal morals are in pieces at this point as she’s literally looking through this girl’s bedroom window, but it’s _this_ or lose Kim’s friendship and subsequently, the only relationship outside of her family she’s ever felt this comfortable with—Trini can’t risk that. 

She hears a loud, muffled voice coming through Kim’s bedroom door and Kim drops something on her desk across the room and turns toward the source of the voice. 

“I was at Billy’s house, mom! I told you that!” Kim sounds vaguely irritated and Trini can only assume her mother’s berating her a little for missing dinner. Having been invited over a couple of times, Trini knows dinner is an important event in the Hart house. More muffled yelling comes from downstairs and Kim’s throwing her head back with an exasperated groan. 

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Kim mumbles, pacing across her room and swinging her door open. “I’m coming!” 

The door slams behind her, and Trini’s already clicking the window open because it’s honestly now or never and she’s not sure how much longer Kim is going to be. She slides the curtains to the side and lifts one leg into Kim’s bedroom, trying desperately to stay as silent as possible. Both of her feet hit the hardwood floor without so much as a _thud_ and she’s suddenly _very_ grateful for her heightened sense of stealth, courtesy of her power coin. A quick look around the room and she spots Kim’s backpack thrown carelessly atop her desk, zipper still tightly closed. The desktop itself is clear save for a few pens and Kim’s laptop and Trini breathes a sigh of relief because it seems that Kim hasn’t had the chance to even open her bag yet. 

Trini’s over to the desk within half a second and she’s got the zipper ripped open in the next. Her hand shoots inside the bag to grab at the contents and her fingers close around the smooth, plastic material of her notebook. She yanks it out and holds it tight with both hands, opening the front cover to check when she spots _Biology II_ _Trini Gomez_ written in the corner. Tears jump to her eyes with the amount of relief she feels. She pulls the zipper shut and tries to arrange the backpack as close to the way she found it as possible. She’s not sure how she’s going to explain to Kim how she magically got her notebook back again, but it’s not her biggest concern. She can half-ass something about the notebook slipping out of her bag at Billy’s house— _“Remember Kim? You left it unzipped?”._ Kim’s not very careful with her things anyway, if the three phones she’d broke in the span of six months was anything to go by. 

Trini turns around with a small sigh, her notebook finally, _finally_ , in her hands when she’s suddenly face to face with Kim, mouth open, eyes wide, and eyebrows knit together softly. 

And Trini _drops_ the fucking notebook as she nearly jumps out of her skin. It lands with a flutter on the ground, open and face down, but it sounds like a gunshot to Trini’s ears. She hadn’t even heard her _come in_. 

“Trin?” Kim’s voice is still kind of thick with sleep, “What—” 

The pink ranger bends down and Trini panics and leans down at the same time to grab at the notebook before their heads collide with a jarring _crack_. They’re both sent backward slightly and Kim’s voice hits her ears with a devastating volume as they both go to stand. 

“Trini what the _fuck_. What are you _doing_ here? What is—” Kim snatches the notebook from the floor before Trini has time to even open her eyes and recover from the collision. “Is this your _English notebook_? Why are you—” 

And Trini can’t really say that she’s ever wanted to _die_ before, but in this particular moment, she wishes she was back in the gaping hole that contains the Zeo crystal as the flames consumed her. She wants to be anywhere but here right now, standing in front of Kim and watching as she gapes at the pages of the notebook. Suddenly, the panic that was gripping at her chest when she first realized the book was missing is back at full force, hitting her like a train. She’s not breathing; she can’t. She has less air in her chest than she had in the pit when Kim had her flat on her back. 

“K—Kim,” she’s choking on her own voice and it comes out as a pathetic, begging whine. 

Kim isn’t saying anything and it’s fucking _torture_. She’s just standing there, her lips parted and her fingers slowly flipping at the incriminating pages and Trini knows there’s no way she can explain that the images that plague them are anything but what they are. 

“Kimberly _please_.” The first tear falls when she finally blinks and suddenly, she can’t stop the rest from falling too. Kim’s still going through the pages and she’s _still_ not speaking and Trini can feel her body freezing up in terror. She doesn’t understand why Kim is just _standing_ there, silently flipping a page every few seconds and letting Trini pitifully watch her, tears freely rolling down her cheeks. 

Kim doesn’t answer her. She comes to the last page that has Trini’s newest drawing on it, the one that spells out her full name in crisp, block letters and pink ink. Trini’s entire face is absolutely _burning,_ colored dark redwith about ten different shades of shame. 

Kim’s fingers pass reverently over the raised lines of her name before she shuts the notebook suddenly and walks past Trini to take a seat on her bed, settling the notebook in her lap. 

“Kimberly, I—” Trini’s still trying to swallow past the tightening of her throat. 

“You know, you only call me Kimberly when you’re really happy or really sad,” Kim finally speaks and a fresh tear falls, staining Trini’s cheeks along with the others. She can feel a million words come forward at once, and she chokes on all of them as they rush out of her mouth. 

“I’m _so_ sorry, it’s— it’s not what it looks like. I— I just,” she’s stumbling over what excuse she wants to try before Kim’s eyebrow quirks and she’s left with a knot in her throat. 

“So,” Kim’s grinning slightly and Trini doesn’t know _why_ , “you _don’t_ have about fifty doodles of my face and name all over your notebook?” 

Trini gawks at her because _yeah,_ she’s absolutely fucked beyond all reason now. A fleeting thought of just making a break for the window passes through her mind for a second before she sees Kim stifle a laugh with a press of her hand over her mouth and pat the spot beside her on the bed. 

“Trin, come sit down before you have an aneurysm. I want to show you something.” 

Trini doesn’t have the headspace to really do anything other than listen to her, so she shuffles over to Kim’s bed and sits beside her. Her head hangs low; she doesn’t want to— _can’t_ — make eye contact with Kim right now. Not when they’re this close. Not after what she just saw. 

Kim shifts on the bed slightly and Trini can see her phone in her hands out of the corner of her eye. She opens Spotify and scrolls through before she selects something and Trini just shuts her eyes because, one, what the _fuck_ could Kim be doing on her phone right now, and two, Kim might be genuinely right about her having an aneurysm. 

“Trini? Look at me.” Kim’s voice is _so close_ to her and familiar goosebumps erupt across the back of her neck. She’s reminded of the torturous past months of Biology class with the girl beside her. Her demanding stare, her eyes when Trini would meet them. _Look at me_. 

She turns her neck slowly and Kim’s giving her this smile that she’s never quite given her before and it makes her chest _ache_. Because she expected disgust and a notebook thrown back in her face, but all Kim’s been giving her so far is the gentleness she’s always given. Kim places her phone in her hands and nods towards it. 

She directs her gaze to the screen and a playlist is open. Her thumb passes over the screen and she scrolls through it, recognizing it immediately. It’s the playlist Kim plays nearly every morning they ride in her car together to school. The one with all the slightly obnoxious top 40 hits (and, _okay_ , some pretty good tracks) that Trini would never admit she’s grown to enjoy. 

“Your playlist?” And it’s Trini’s turn to knit her eyebrows. “Kim, I— I don’t...” 

“No, Trin,” Kim’s laughing again and Trini’s ears flush even _more._ Kim’s fingers pass over the screen. “Look at the title.” 

And there, standing proudly at the top of the playlist, is her name. Surrounded by little yellow emoji hearts. 

And all at once she remembers what kind of songs compose the playlist—a mix of upbeat and softer songs about love and crushes and— 

_Oh._

She whips her head up to look at Kim and the pink ranger’s smile can only be described as _shy._ Trini suddenly understands why she’s never seen that look on Kim’s face before. Kim doesn’t _do_ shy. But that’s out the window with the gentle curl of her lips and the color spreading across her cheeks as she looks down at Trini. 

“You’ve kinda been listening to me spilling my guts through song for going on a month now,” Kim says and Trini has _no_ idea how to wrap her mind around _that_. 

“You...” Trini’s been left speechless so many times within the span of twelve hours she’s not sure if her brain really works anymore. “Wait— what?” 

“Listen, Zack literally told me tonight while you were in the kitchen with Jason that if I didn’t make a move soon, he was worried you were going to spontaneously combust,” Kim’s pretty laugh bursts through the haze surrounding Trini’s thoughts. “That, and he said he was going to have to start bringing his pocket knife to training just to cut through the sexual tension.” 

Trini manages to open her mouth and get a strangled noise out before closing it again because she’s torn between processing what Kim just insinuated and plotting Zack’s demise. 

Kim’s hands come up to cradle her cheeks and Trini can do nothing but stare stupidly as the pink ranger’s thumbs swipe under her eyes, brushing the wetness away. 

“Trini, _I like you,_ you oblivious mess,” Kim chuckles and goes to pull the phone from Trini’s death grip before she ends up crushing it. 

“I mean, I’m a little upset that you felt the need to literally _break_ into my room just so I wouldn’t find out about your notebook, but I’ve been dropping hints for _months,”_ Kim squeezes at her cheeks lightly before dropping her hands to land over Trini’s. “You just apparently have a really thick head.” 

“Oh my _god._ ” Trini wiggles her hands free from under Kim’s in favor of pressing them to her face. “I can’t right now.” 

She can feel the heat practically radiating off her cheeks and there’s a genuinely stupid smile plastered across her face but she’s so _embarrassed_. She’s been sneaking around and following Kim to her _house_ and nearly going out of her mind only to end up sitting here with Kim telling her she’s been into her for months without her noticing? She’s dancing on the line between being absolutely mind-numbingly ecstatic and wanting to melt into the floor so Kim can’t see how red she’s gotten. 

“Kim, I’ve been having an actual, ongoing panic attack all day about this shit.” She whines. “And you’re telling me you could have put me out of my misery? Why didn’t you just _tell me?_ ” 

She can almost visualize Kim giving her a look, “Why didn’t _you_?” 

At that, Trini lets her hands drop from her face to give Kim a look of her own. Because they both know Trini would have happily taken her crush to the grave before fessing up. As if that wasn’t obvious enough by what Kim had just caught her doing. 

_“_ I was waiting,” Kim sighs. 

“For what?” 

“For you,” Kim says after a pause, and Trini shakes her head a little in confusion. “I was waiting until you were ready. Trini, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about you it’s that you have to do things at your own pace or you’ll freak out. It didn’t matter to me how much _I_ was ready if you weren’t.” 

Trini thinks her heart is going to explode. 

“I mean, I don’t really know if you’re ready now that it’s kind of out of the bag, and I’m still willing to wait if you need some space,” Kim’s fingers pass over the notebook that now lay closed atop her duvet, “but I just wanted to let you know how I _very much_ reciprocate.” 

“Jesus Christ,” Trini mumbles, “I can’t believe this.” 

“What?” 

“I can’t believe I literally could have been kissing you for the past six months instead of just fucking _staring_ at you like an idiot.” Trini presses her fingers to her temples as Kim giggles. 

“I mean, you can _now_ , if you want,” Kim whispers as if she’s afraid Trini is going to bolt at her words. Instead, Trini looks to her with a kind of disbelieving wonder in her eyes. 

“Can I?” 

The only thing Kim can do right now is swallow hard and nod because she’s been waiting for Trini to get her shit together ever since she first invited her to Krispy Kreme and now that she’s looking at Kim like she can’t believe she’s real, her head is swimming. 

Trini’s eyes flit down to Kim’s lips for a moment and she takes a shuddering breath before slowly leaning in. Kim follows her like she can't resist the inevitable pull. Their noses brush and Trini hesitates, so Kim surges forward before the yellow ranger can overthink it and suddenly they’re kissing. 

Light explodes behind Trini’s eyelids as their lips press together and she’s never felt so whole in her entire life. Oh god, how did she even exist before this? Everything seems to come together like puzzle pieces as she feels Kim breathe against her. The way Kim loves to tease her, the way she looks back at Trini a hundred times in the middle of class, the way she can't ever seem to stop wanting to be close to her or touch her. It’s all been Kim basically screaming at her “ _I’m here when you’re ready”_ and she wants to kick herself for ever being so caught up in her _own_ feelings to recognize all of the signs. 

Kim pulls away first, only allowing them both a few millimeters of space to breathe. They both glance down and Trini shouldn’t even be surprised when she sees the scaly yellow armor crawling slowly up her arm and reaching across her shoulder. The only thing that quells her embarrassment is that Kim’s arm is similarly covered, the pink armor slowly stretching towards her neck. Kim looks back up to her and bites her lip. 

“I’m really glad I don’t have to hide that anymore.” 

Before she can say anything back (because _what?_ ), Kim connects their mouths again, sliding her own gently over Trini’s, and she’s melting into it. Everything about Kim right now is soft and so, _so_ careful as she wraps her fingers around the back of Trini’s neck as they kiss, the metal of Kim’s armor cool against her skin. Trini feels so fragile right now, like she’s seconds away from crumbling into Kimberly’s lap, but the pink ranger is there holding her together, steady and firm. 

It’s Trini who pulls away this time, only because she feels like she’s about to faint and she really doesn’t need to embarrass herself further tonight. She rests her forehead against Kim’s, keeps their faces close because she can’t imagine having any space between them right now. Her eyes remain closed as she tries to gather herself. 

“I like you, too,” She whispers, leaning forward a little to brush her nose with Kim’s. 

“I know.” 

She lets out a laugh that has relief blooming through her chest and up her neck as she opens her eyes. Of course, Kim had to stay on brand even in a moment like this. 

“I don’t know how you managed to keep so cool about all of this when I’ve nearly bursting at the seams the past couple of weeks,” Trini mumbles, turning her head to brush her cheek against Kim’s. She can feel the taller girl’s spreading grin. 

“It’s a good thing you’re the hot head and I’m the patient one,” Kim teases and it has Trini separating them for the first time, leaning back with her mouth hanging open. 

“You say that like you didn’t literally punch your ex in the face,” Trini points out incredulously while Kim rolls her eyes. 

“Whatever, I’ve punched you in the face too,” Kim mumbles before pulling at the back of Trini’s neck again to bring her in for another kiss. 

Again, Trini can’t really argue with that so she just grins against Kim’s lips while she realizes the feeling welling up in her chest finally feels _peaceful_ instead of panicked. 

“So, what do your _other_ notebooks look like?” Kim smirks as they pull away again. 

Trini lets out another whine. 

“ _Kimberly.”_

* * *

When they end up telling the boys, to their credit, they really do try to act surprised before Billy butts in and says: 

“Wait, I thought they already _were_ together?” 

Jason and Zack groan simultaneously while Kim is having trouble keeping it together and Billy just raises his hands in confusion. 

“What?” 

“It’s okay, Bills,” Trini rubs his back softly, “We weren’t, but we are now.” 

“Well, congratulations again!” Billy beams, but then his smile drops and he pauses for a second. “Wait, does this mean it’s gonna make things awkward when I call our hangouts ranger dates?” 

Kim laughs and Trini lets herself openly admire her without guilt. 

“No, B, you can still call them that,” Kim looks over to Trini and she finally gets the joke as the pink ranger’s eyes twinkle familiarly. 

“Man, _finally_!” Zack walks over and claps Trini on the back, “I mean I for _sure_ thought I was gonna end up with a broken bone the way this was going, but way to go, T, you can finally take your sexual frustration out on the source!” 

He lifts up a hand to give the yellow ranger a high five, but Trini’s scowl has him backing up a few steps before they both take off in a run, Trini’s angry expletives bouncing off the walls of the pit. 

Kim and Jason share a glance. 

“Don’t look at me, she’s your responsibility now,” Jason says, lifting his hands up and shaking his head at Kim. 

Kim looks back to the pair vaulting over boulders around the pit. Zack’s shrieks of “ _I didn’t mean it! T, come on!”_ have her chuckling. 

“I’m gonna give her this one.” 

**Author's Note:**

> you can visit me on tumblr @wingedwaves if you wanna scream about gay things  
> also, here is the link to Kim's playlist as I had it in mind if you'd like to listen:  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2JYuu1kf8FQzBlhFq93hzS


End file.
